Time to Begin Planting or Preparing Soil

For those of you who live where the frost is done, it’s time to begin thinking about planting. That’s certainly not true for those of us who live in the north; our time is just around the corner, but not yet. For the southern gardeners, the first three days of April are excellent days to plant below-ground crops. That would include beets, carrots, parsnips, onions, rutabagas, turnips and radishes.

For anyone, if you have never gardened before, now would be a good time to get the bed ready. If you are turning sod into a garden spot, cover the sod with a thick layer of newspaper. It would be smart to contact the paper to see if they use organic inks. These inks won’t hurt the soil. Most colored paper, however, is made with chemicals so it might be wise to skip their use. Put rocks on top of the pile of papers to hold it down. The lack of light will begin to kill the sod underneath.

Or, you can put some compost on top to hold down the newspaper.

If you live in the north, some soils can benefit from a bit of early warm-up. Place clear plastic—definitely plastic which is UV rated—on the soil for a few days. Using just any old plastic could result in the Sun completely breaking it down. This would leave a really messy pile of tiny plastic pieces which would need to be cleaned up. Very time consuming.

After the new Moon, the 11^th and the 12^th of April are great days to plant above-ground crops. Some of us northern gardeners will be able to put peas, lettuce, broccoli, kale, cabbage, pansies and some herbs like thyme and oregano into the ground. Mints can also be planted now, but, along with the thyme and oregano, should be put in their own beds as they take over. It would be best to wait until the 19^th and 20^th to begin planting below-ground crops.

Happy planting!

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